Inspired principally by the Black Lives Matter movement and popular forms of intersectional feminism, this course examines the role of history in how we view media. It explores how representations of race and gender, and opportunities to intervene in those representations, can change across media technologies, genres, and audiences. We take seriously the contested history of U.S. mass media, seeking the relationships among mainstream media production and subcultural creators and audiences, and between commercial and critical representations of self/other. Considering multiple angles on bodily difference, students will gain the language to discuss race and gender in particular as distinct and intersecting forms of social visibility. We will examine the production and disruption of bodily “norms” within certain media and genres: how creators and audiences of radio, film, TV, and emerging media have wielded representation in an effort to intervene in misrepresentation. Because we aim to excavate the societal “stakes” in representation and discourse, we will practice discursive intervention: students will critique media via three different genres (history, critical essay, prose reflection) and develop a relationship with an audience of their own.